


Salty and Sweet

by DeermistWrites



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Awkward Tsukishima Kei, Birthday Presents, F/M, Gift Fic, Haikyuu Manga Minor Spoilers, Kei Tsukishima is your Glucose Guardian in a way, Subtle mentions of Kenma and Kuroo, Tsukishima Being Loaded Af in General, Tsukishima Kei Being an Asshole, Tsukishima Kei is Bad at Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26338471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeermistWrites/pseuds/DeermistWrites
Summary: Tsukki takes on the challenge of being nice to you for your birthday. He goes all out.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei x Original Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Salty and Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift fic for my friend, Nicole (@creemshouwn on Twitter. FOLLOW HER PAGE FOR QUALITY ART - and if you’re a fan of MHA, particularly if you ship BKDK as well as play Identity V and Arknights - a word of caution if you’re not legally allowed to view explicitly mature content).
> 
> Happy Birthday, bebby! I hope you enjoy this. I apologize for the messy pacing in advance.
> 
> A spoiler alert, since this is set in the Final Arc of the manga where Tsukishima is already in college and a V. League athlete. A few characters are included here as well but their names won't be mentioned as much.

The sound of Tsukki’s volleyball practice alarm annoyingly ticked through your ears, making you turn the other way around on the bed when he turned it off. Your boyfriend decided to poke your cheek this early and ruin your buffer time for the rest of the morning.

“Oi, nerd. Get up.” Tsukki repeatedly poked your cheek and smiled when he successfully got that look of your scrunched up nose, forcibly opening your eyes and throwing a pillow at his face. “You’re going with me to the practice match today.” He kissed you on the nose and grabbed his glasses from the night stand before getting up from the bed himself.

“I thought you didn’t want me seeing your matches.” A yawn escaped from your mouth while you sat there on the bed, still struggling to get your legs raising the half of your body. The surprise of his words caught your attention still, since Tsukki doesn’t want the embarrassing attention of having a loved one cheer for him in matches. While this is a practice match, the occurrence of those words coming out from his mouth are definitely rare.

You heard the popping of stiff joints as Kei did his morning stretches in front of you. The sight of his lean muscles that your eyes exclusively get to see slightly snapped you out of your morning haze, your cheeks betraying you with a blush. He knew you were pleased with what you’re seeing.

“I’m trying to be nice to you today, Nikki. Appreciate it a little. Besides, you’re the one that said that you wanted to study sketching the team for practice.”

Your legs finally stood on their own, proceeded towards hugging Tsukki from behind and interrupting his stretch with another yawn before planting a kiss on his back. “You call this being nice, four eyes?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” Tsukki took your hand and kissed it softly, accepting your challenge on being a little more compliant for the day. “Now go take a shower, birthday girl.” He let your hand go and gave you a kiss on the forehead before he continued the last of his stretches.

“Is that supposed to be a greeting?” 

“I’ll give you a proper one later.” He said with a gentle voice and smug eyebrows raised on his face. Challenge accepted.

\--

Notifications started piling up on your phone as early as 7AM, full of greetings from colleagues, and family. The shower and your boyfriend’s attempt at being nice wasn’t really enough just yet to push you further into the day until Tsukki offered to drive you both into your favorite cafe for a nice dose of caffeine and a fluffy stack of souffle pancakes bought especially for you before going to their company gymnasium. Before leaving, Akiteru and their mother greeted you with a happy birthday as well. They let you stay in for the night since Tsukki insisted that you do. You were always welcome to come by anytime. 

The middle blocker’s phone vibrated in his pocket while you two indulged in your meals, another rare occurrence since he doesn’t always get social with most people outside of volleyball or college. Strangely enough, he picked the call as quickly as he could when he saw the name of the caller. Muting the phone for a second, he excused himself for a bit while running outside with a sense of urgency to continue the call.

Kei and the word urgency doesn’t seem to be a good fit. You sliced through your remaining pancake and took a slow sip from your morning tea latte as your mind wandered on the reason why your boyfriend was taking so long on the phone.

Ten minutes later and the chimes jingling on the door signified Tsukki’s return, a calm look on his face but with shoulders tense when he took his seat.

“Is everything alright?” You asked, before taking another sip.

“Yeah, just someone from the team asking me to buy some equipment by the sports store before we proceed.” A subtle flush spread through his cheeks when he gave his answer. “So, drink up slowpoke. The sooner we can get to practice, the sooner you get what you want.”

_ Huh. What was that all about? Why would an errand call make him blush of all things? _

You decided to brush off your suspicion and thought it was just the cold morning air from outside.

“It’s my birthday, let me savor the moment.” Snapping back at him, you sipped the warm drink with your eyebrows rising in satisfaction.

\--

The sports store wasn’t even opened yet when you got there. He asked you to stay in the car while he got out to buy whatever him and his team needed. Tsukki fiddled on his phone continuously until a woman from the inside opened the locks. The lady looked gorgeous, glasses idly sitting on her nose, soft silky raven-black hair, an athletic physique, and with a beauty mark near her mouth to complete the whole package.

Your boyfriend politely greeted her before heading with her to the back of the shop.

Out of boredom, you picked up Tsukki’s headphones from the dashboard and plugged it in your own phone.  _ He’s acting strange today,  _ you thought. Tsukki’s already as distant as he is, save for when he’s being affectionate to you in private or through your daily banter. Come to think of it, he has been trying his best to be nice to you for your birthday. The lack of more harsh comments in need of rebuttals was something you noted as well.

After setting up your morning tunes, you scrolled through your online shopping cart checking on anime merch and costumes, marking the ones that you could add onto your wishlist. You were about to doze off from browsing through the endless pit of product ads until you felt the car’s trunk close with a thump, your eyes watching Tsukki get into the driver’s seat.

“Why is your face so red, Tsukki? It’s not even that cold outside right now.” Suspiciously, you pointed out at him.

“Maybe I’m just feeling colder than usual, Nikki.”

“You’ve been nice to me today so far. What’s going on? Are you sick?” You placed your hand on his forehead as he started the car.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

“Did that pretty lady say anything funny to you?” Speaking of which while you were driving off, the lady and Kei briefly waved at each other.

Kei adjusted his glasses, the redness on his face starting to subside. “Something like that.” 

\--

“Oi, nerd. Stay here at the bleachers. I’ll just change into my jersey.” Tsukishima brought his duffle with him, walking towards the locker rooms. 

“Tsukishima-san!” One of his more energetic teammates approached your boyfriend. “Your package arrived just n-” The poor kid got his mouth covered all of a sudden by Kei and got dragged back into the locker room with his other teammates.  _ What the heck was that all about? _

Your boyfriend looked like a murderer hiding the crime scene right now, a chuckle escaped from your lips. He seemed like those glasses bastard on late night shows that the two of you would watch from his laptop, like when he was adjusting his glasses earlier while brushing your question off so easily. It would take a lot of effort egging him on when you know Kei isn’t going to budge no matter how hard you try. It’s your birthday after all, better to not think too much about it. If he was planning on surprising you, you might as well not ruin it if he’s acting like this. 

He wasn’t always full of surprises though. At least not in his words.

The screen of your tablet lit up as you prepared your software for sketching. A bit of stretching and warming up here and there by yourself, nothing too intense to match the Sendai Frogs stretching in front of you before their practice match. 

“Yo, Nikki-san! Happy Birthday!” One of them greeted you loudly from below.

“Ah, thank you so much.”

“Tsukki here won’t stop talking about it for the week. You got him wrapped around your finger.” Another member of his team chimed in.

“Quit it.” Your boyfriend’s face was red all over again.

“I know! Lucky, aren’t I?” Tsukki pouted at the sight of your smug grin you had on your face when you turned to him as you answered his teammate. 

“Oi, nerd. This is the last time you’re coming to this gym, got it?” Kei stood from his modified hurdle stretch before working his squats, showing off his quads for you.

“Can you guys believe it? He’s being nice to me today.” The marks appeared in your software in time with your strokes as you started sketching Kei and his teammates in swift motion. You knew this wouldn’t be the last time at all.

“Yeah yeah, enjoy it while it lasts.” 

“I love you too, four eyes.” 

The team laughed at what they’re hearing, not expecting anyone to keep up with their middle blocker’s sharp tongue and witty retorts. Yet here you are, a year and a few months time since you two started dating. Banter starting from the moment the both of you wake up, while your body languages work on actions that show your affection. 

He winked back at you before welcoming the opposing team for the match.

\--

“Hooooo those sketches look amazing, Nikki-chan!” Their libero marveled at your study of him diving to the ground to catch the spiked ball.

Your sketches included spikers hitting the ball with all their might, three blockers on the right defending their side from an ace, an image of Tsukki and their other middle blocker on their water break, and more – all done in a span of 2 hours. A time well spent indeed.

“Are you satisfied so far?” Tsukki flippantly asked while getting close to your side.

“Much, sweaty-shima. Go shower before you stink up the atmosphere.” ‘ _ So far’, huh.  _ “Wait, there’s more?”

“But you like the atmosphere when I’m sweaty. It’s only eleven in the morning, Nikki. Yes, there’s more. Do you think of me that horribly?” Tsukki pretends to be shocked, putting his hand in the middle of his broad chest.

“As a matter of fact, yes.” You said in disdain. 

“I love you too, nerd.” Victorious, your boyfriend smiled.

One of their players rolled their eyes at the tooth-rotting public display of affection their salty teammate doesn’t usually show, hearing more of your banter turning into sickeningly sweet spoiling that they oddly never see enough from Tsukki himself aside from the unlikely word of him talking about you with his team for the past few days.

“Get a room, you two. We can feel the tension from here.” Their ace complained.

Tsukki went ahead to the company gym’s washroom, with the energetic teammate he almost gagged earlier. A presence of serious business loomed the two of them, the volumes of their voices you can barely hear. The difference in their body language showed, comparable to the sweet quipping from moments ago.

\--

With your tablet back in your bag, you were all set for what’s about to come. To your surprise though, Tsukki came to you from the front door. 

“What the- I thought you were in the washroom.” You pointed out.

“Relax, I just went back to the car for the stuff that they made me buy from the store. Are you all set, shorty?” Tsukki asked with his hand ready to help you down the bleachers. 

You took his hand and squeezed it with unnecessary force before going down the steps “How very reliable of you.” 

Waves of good-bye came from the Sendai Frogs as you and Tsukki drove away, wishing you to have a great birthday before they went for lunch themselves and respecting the privacy Tsukki asked them to give at least for today. You anticipate and relish in the thought that he’ll never hear the end of it from his teammates tomorrow.

For now, your favorite part of your birthday comes. It was timely that today was his free day from classes he takes you out to lunch at your favorite karaage restaurant in Sendai and heading to a dessert cafe after, with Tsukki promising not to laugh when you finally get the chance to stuff yourself with sweets. 

Your boyfriend stares at you earnestly, his left hand overlapping on his right. “What do you think of today so far?” 

The chunk of your favorite mango-topped ice cream drizzled with chocolate went down your throat smoothly. “It’s alright.”

“Alright? You’re very hard to please today.” He took a small scoop from your ice cream, making sure he got some of the red bean topping.

“I expect nothing less from my boyfriend.” You took another scoop, this time starting from the whipped cream down to the very bottom of the glass. “You’ve been going easy on me today, at least. I appreciate it.”

“I’m leveling myself down for a day so you can handle it.” 

“We do this everyday, Tsukki. You know I can handle you.” Pop, went the spoon from your mouth when you took it out. “This day’s been weird for me so far because you’re so nice, aside from the fact that you’re hiding something.” 

Tsukki’s shoulder tensed at your words then eventually relaxing, easily regaining his composure and adjusting his spectacles. The blush on his face stayed this time though.

“You’re not the best at hiding things y’know. The last time you got injured, you were acting all manly about it before you complained that you needed help putting your headphones on.” Your spoon gently went down through the thick soft serve, scooping just a tiny amount before pointing the spoon towards your boyfriend.

Tsukki gladly accepted the offer and ate the ice cream from your spoon. “No need to remind me about that little mishap. What makes you think you’ll get to hear about that now?” He took his keys from his pocket and twirled them on his finger. “Finish your ice cream. We got one more stop before we head back home.”

\--

What’s a birthday without a cake, right? Your final stop before dusk was the regular bakeshop you two would stop by, not really much of a surprise when Tsukki gets you a cheesecake with your favorite Apollo chocolates all over it. Never thought the day would come where he goes all out with being sweet, was something important about to happen? Is Tsukki coming down with an illness? 

“Tsukki.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you sick or something?” Your thumbs fiddled through your phone, answering the greetings you haven’t been able to get back to from today’s adventures. 

“No. You think that’s what I’m hiding from you?” Tsukki snorted.

“You’ve been going all out for today, it's weird.” Closing your social media app, your thumb decided then to click on your favorite online shopping platform and browsed through the saved products on your cart that you were planning to get once you saved up enough from your commissions.

Your boyfriend’s full set of eyes caught a glimpse of your screen from the window. “Well, it’s about to get weirder.” A smooth turn of the wheel and he parked the car with ease at their house’s front. 

“Tsukishima Kei, what in the world are you planning?” 

“Just look forward to it. Go ahead first, Akiteru’s waiting for you in the living room. I need to send a few reminders to the Frogs tomorrow that I forgot earlier.” Tsukki began dialing on his phone as you went ahead to the front door.

“I’m home.” You shouted as you took off your shoes and slipped into comfy slippers.

“Welcome back.” Akiteru and his mother shouted from the kitchen. “Nikki-chan, I got you something for your birthday too.” He rushed to the living room first, beckoning you to follow him. He reached for the small paper bag on the coffee table and handed it to you. “I hope you like it.”

You accepted the gift with both hands and nodded twice while thanking Akiteru. Going through the extra wrappings inside, the word artist piqued your attention. Your hand reached in and pulled out the box that indicated the label of a drawing glove used for drawing on digital screens. “How very thoughtful of you, Akiteru-kun. Thank you so much!”

“I’m glad you like it, Nikki-chan. How was your day so far?” Akiteru grabbed his phone, before sitting down on the couch. 

You plumped down next to him, setting your gift next to you on the couch as you waited for Tsukki. “It’s been oddly compelling, to say the least.”

“Oddly compelling? Why?” He chuckled as he continued tapping on his phone while his eyes went back and forth to you and his thumbs.

“He’s been very sweet today.” You went onto your own phone and replied to the remaining greetings from people at work.

“Is that so? Isn’t he always sweet to you?” Akiteru looked at you straight before going back to his phone again.

“Goodness, if you knew how our daily conversations go you’d be surprised. He can be a pain in the ass sometimes” You smirked at your boyfriend’s brother, thinking of how contrasting their personalities and speeches are. A notification popped up on your phone in your shopping app, alerting you of a sale about to happen in a few minutes. Your thumb involuntarily tapped it, leading you to the catalogue catered especially for you.

“I’m just glad he’s talking to people and not being slumped in his room all the time.” A notification from his phone startled him for a moment, you felt Akiteru’s eyes on you and your screen. “Thank you for taking care of him, Nikki-chan. I’m glad that he’s been beaming ever since because of you.”

That stopped you from adding on your cart for a second and looked at Akiteru’s eyes directly. “Really now, it seemed like the other way around really.” An awkward laugh escaped from your mouth, knowing full well that Tsukki really picks you up a lot more than you realized. 

“He’s changed so much ever since he met you, y’know. Kei would talk about you a lot, surprised that someone could actually go toe-on-toe with his wits.” You tilted your head upon hearing this from him. “Kei would even ask me for advice when he was having difficulty opening up to you more. He’d ask for good spots to take you out too.” He chuckled at the thought of reminiscing the first few months of his brother awkwardly asking him questions about romance.

“Really now? I can’t imagine him saying that so confidently too.” Information from Akiteru made you grin deviously, knowing full well this would be a topic to tease him on in future conversations.

“Speaking of which, we’ve been messaging about you for the past five minutes.” That snapped you out of your current scheming. “Come to the backyard, Kei’s waiting for you.” He stood up from the couch, beckoning you to follow him to the backdoor and opening it for you.”

There you saw Tsukki standing beside a table he set out with your cake on it, a candle lit in the middle ready for you to blow. Aside from the cake, there were several paper bags on it, all with different labels. 

“Happy Birthday, Nikki.” Uncharacteristically, Tsukki smiled gently before pulling you in for a kiss. “Now make your wish before the wind makes it for you.” …  _ There he is.  _ He wasn’t particularly kidding when he said he’d give you a proper greeting and this night being completely weirder.

“Hmm… Who are you and what have you done to my boyfriend?” You pulled his glasses up before kissing back. To the table, you leaned down to blow the flame. Excitement wavered down on you because of the cake at first until your eyes wandered off to the different paper bags next to it. “What is all this? And isn’t this the paper bag from the sports store earlier?” 

“Why don’t you go find out for yourself?” Tsukki crossed his arms on his chest, observing your gleaming figure as you basked in the moonlight.

You went through your paper bags, eyes going wide with the items right in front of you. Literally most of the things you were scrolling through your shopping app were here. The sports-labeled paper bag contained cosmetics that you were simply eyeing from a window shopping walk through the streets a couple of weeks ago. It hit you when you remembered why he was blushing earlier in the car after the manager of the sports store waved Tsukki goodbye. Maybe he asked that pretty lady for help in acquiring the full bottle of foundation and a limited edition face palette. Rummaging through another paper bag, you pulled out a box of a chibi figurine of your favorite character from a mobile game that you played - something that you added to your cart last weekend. 

“Kei Tsukishima, how in the world did you get all these?” Your eyes had that twinkle, easing your boyfriend in as he inhaled sharply in anticipation for you to open the biggest paper bag.

“I know a few people. Those figurines were hard to get.” Tsukki nodded at you, motioning for you to open the best gift for last.

And so you did, your hands shaking in shock once you pulled the bags out. Another set of items that you added to your cart, your observant boyfriend must have seen while you were chilling with him when he played his video games in his room. A full costume of your favorite character from the game that you two played together. This included everything, along with the wig, the accessories, and the shoes. 

“Kei!” Your eyes were tearing up, not knowing that this assholed-front of a boyfriend would go all out on your birthday. He strategically planned this entire day, pulling out the courage he needed to go through his connections just to get you into a blushing mess.

“A friend of a friend from Tokyo sent it to me just in time for today.” Another realization hit you when you remembered Tsukki gagging his teammate upon his announcement that your costume arrived before the practice match and him coming to get you from the front door of the company gymnasium, probably due to him hiding the costume in the trunk of the car as fast as he could.

Your eyes glistened when you attempted to prevent tears from falling down on your face. “Thank you, Tsukki. I enjoyed this day very much. You didn’t have to push yourself so hard for this. You must have begged your friends so much for all these.” Managing a chuckle, you slammed yourself into your boyfriend and squeezed him tightly. 

“You’re not complaining now, are you?” A dark flush colored his face while you were out in the cold night with him. 

“Not even in the slightest.” Despite the oddly compelling day of your boyfriend being nice to you, you relaxed in his arms. Smiling at the thought of this salty dinosaur letting his ego down for a bit to ask around for help was an additional point of conversation that Akiteru gave you the idea of having. 

Kei Tsukishima took your challenge of being sweet to you for a day, giving it the effort that you never would have seen from him before. An ultimate retort from a month-long exchange of teasing him with words of underestimating his ability to show a little tooth-rotting sweetness aside from the daily wave of salt and smug.

“Let’s head inside and eat your cake before you try that costume on for me upstairs. Clean your snot for me first though.” Your boyfriend laughed as you rushed to the bathroom before he could take the opportunity of taking your photo from your poor attempt of holding back ugly sobs.

**Author's Note:**

> The hyperactive teammate in the practice match is Kogane, while Tsukki asked Kuroo to contact Kenma for the anime merch and cosplay materials. My friend has this headcanon of Tsukishima being bad with words but his love language is giving you gifts, given that he can afford quality volleyball shoes that cost around $200.


End file.
